ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: The World Bank has proposed development of a modern and accountable ‘new water state’ in Pakistan by overhauling the irrigation system, ground water extraction and other water-related operations.
The bank is of the opinion that needs for water are changing substantially owing to agricultural diversification, urbanization, industrialization, recognition of environmental needs, climate change and evolution of the natural resource base.
“Since there will be, if anything, less rather than more water, it means that the new water economy is going to be one which is much more flexible, in which the key will be the voluntary reallocation of water from those who need it less to those who need it more,” said the bank in a report.
The proposed arrangement is likely to require a ‘very different type’ of state machinery at both federal and provincial levels to meet these challenges.
The bank has proposed to un-bundle the water business into bulk, transmission and distribution enterprises, with relations among the parts governed by the contracts which specify the rights and responsibilities of both parties to introduce accountability, efficiency, transparency and competition into the surface water supply business.
This will mean moving away from a monolithic service model below distributaries (with farmer associations competing for the market with the irrigation department) and into canal commands where different forms of public-private partnerships can provide an alternative to the irrigation department.
In many such cases, professionals from the irrigation department would be encouraged to form private businesses for the provision of such services, thus ensuring that their skills are not lost.
The bulk business i.e. the operation of dams and barrages would remain in the state hands, but with many major functions going to private operators.
In such a system, the government would gradually play a very different role. It would corporatize the state-owned operating units and develop new capacities to do the economic regulation.
The government would also be more active in groundwater management and develop a new legal and regulatory framework for co-managing groundwater with user associations.
The main purpose of the new systems, both for surface and groundwater, would be improving the administration of a well-established system for water entitlements through finalization of an agreement on environmental flows into the Delta and then implementation of the water accord in a transparent manner, audited by a neutral auditor.
